


Signs of Spring

by MelissaKeith



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/F, Gen, POV Original Character, Self-Insert OC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2018-12-25 07:45:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12031350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelissaKeith/pseuds/MelissaKeith
Summary: Ume plum trees are awesome: not only do their sweet-smelling petals  signal the end of winter, they're also said to protect homes from bad spirits. Even if they're shown up by cherry blossoms a couple months later, I'm very proud to bear the name Ume.I had a name before Ume, though. Before I was born in this world, I was a super nerd in another. This is the tale of my attempts to use the knowledge I gained back then to protect my sister and my village.(Mild parody that I take very seriously.)





	1. 転生輪廻

I didn't remember my past life until I was like, four. I'm glad, because I have heard of people who got their memories and awareness from the start. I do NOT want to remember being born.

Instead, my first four years were normal. I started talking a little early, and walking a little late.

I want to think that my memories were coming back all the time, just so slowly that I didn't see them, and that Ichiraku ramen just made it obvious.

It happened in fall, the season for eating. That was the only reason my mom took me there, since she hated ramen. She liked light food better.

As I ate, I thought, 'No wonder Naruto loves this stuff!' And then... 'Who is Naruto?'

Some clearer scenes came back on the walk home.

"I remembered a past life," I told my mama when we got home, my tone super serious. "Past me knew the future."

"That's lovely, dear."

"The last me died at twenty-one," I frowned. "Mama! I never had a coming of age party!"

"Ah, that's terrible."

She was used to me saying silly stuff, so it was only natural that she blew me off. I only pouted a little bit before I went to tell my sister.

Her room was upstairs. I tripped going up, and for a minute forgot about what I had to tell her. I had to cry about my knee first.

"Ume-chan! Don't run on the stairs, that's dangerous."

"It huuuurts!" I cried, rolling around. "I'm gonna die again!"

My older sister was always smart. "Again? That means you died before, silly."

"I knoooow!"

I was pretty excited to tell her all about it, so I stopped my tears quick.

"I remembered things," I said, wanting to sound cool. "I used to be a different person!"

"What are you saying?"

"I was a different person," I say again. "Before I was Ume, I died!"

"Ah... Is that so?"

She wasn't taking me seriously either.

"Sakuraaaaa.... I'm serious!"

"Say 'onee-san'." She said, like always. But I didn't care, because I had remembered something new.

"Ah! Sarada!" My knee hurt, but I did a little dance. "You are gonna have a kid with Sasuke and name her Sarada!"

"W-what?!" There, that had gotten her attention!

"In my past life the future was a manga and I read about you and you had a kid!" Understanding my own words, I screamed in joy. I would be an auntie someday! "She's so cuuute, too!"

This was a bad way to tell her, though. Sakura just though I was picking on her, and got all red. She didn't talk to me for the whole day.

Looking back, I'm kind of glad that she reacted poorly. It made me think more about who I should tell.


	2. 意思表示

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ume turns five and starts at the Academy.

Five months passed without my past life's memories being useful. I tried to start reading - past me liked reading - but nobody wanted to teach me.

It was annoying to learn hiragana when I knew I had learned them before. I gave up a lot. Mama got used to hearing things like, "I knew this thing before I died!" about all kinds of new stuff, not just reading.

Papa tried to take me seriously. He let me rant about things that made Mama mad, like when I would remember good foods that the other me ate. The more I remembered, the madder I got that Mama made me eat gross stuff. We had a big fight when I said her food was bad to a guest (it was just Ino!) and another fight when I said I didn't care about getting fat.

At four years old, food was life. I had to fight for my right to good food! And Papa understood that.

Other than Sarada, I didn't remember much from what I read about this world. Not until a week after I turned five, when Sakura let me go to school too. New term would start in a month as cherry blossoms fell. Right now, the plum blossoms were falling and sign-ups were happening.

Seeing the Academy brought something back. Sakura getting a team - fighting with Ino? - and the blond ramen nerd running for the toilet. It was so funny, I forgot that I was supposed to be listening.

An old guy with a fancy hat was telling me and some other kids about the village and how we should protect some fire, and so my sister hit me for laughing.

"You are an embarrassment," she said, her face red. She tugged some hair over her face as people looked at us. She was so dramatic - I was five. If anybody cared about me laughing, they were already gonna be mad at me for being a kid in the first place.

After the old man's talk, we started signing up. This is when I said - "A ninja? Me?"

Sakura gave me that look. That 'we aren't family' look, 'because you're dumb' look. "You can try it out for a year," she said. "If you can't handle the bookwork, then quit."

The next month passed too fast. All kinds of weird memories came up, like songs and weird cartoon creatures and this way of making stuff with a hook and string. Because I thought too much about that stuff, my first day was suddenly here.

On the one hand, I already knew a couple classmates! On the bad hand, I messed it up.

"You're Moegi! The sexy kunoichi!"

"Haruno! That kind of language is completely unacceptable, you ought to be ashamed, who taught you that word-" Sorry, sensei...

And then I recognized a kid after class. "Hey, you're the third's-!"

Konohamaru had stomped off then. Too late, I remembered he hates being called like that.

All in all, the first day was bad. But! I stayed positive, remembering how past me got their legs hurt in their first week at school. At least that didn't happen.

Ninja academy got better in the third week, because a teacher sat me down with the easiest hiragana chart ever and a book on kanji. He was an older class's teacher but a good guy who helped problem students.

(A lesson I will teach my kids: calling your classmate sexy makes you a problem child.)

The third week was also good because I got sat down and Papa said to think about my goals. He wrote them in kana when I said stuff, and told me to read it every morning. It really helped.

てつだうと  
まもると  
よむと  
おもいだす

"Help and protect and read and remember," the page said. And I could read it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is so self-indulgent that I'm scared of getting reviews. Why am I posting it? Good question. Maybe when it gets somewhere, I'll add a captivating prologue.


	3. 飽食時代

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What a child can learn in six months...

I made my first friend in the summer. It was funny too, because she told me to call her Natsu.

Natsu was loud when I was quiet and quiet when I was loud. She forgave or forgot any bad thing I did, and ate more than me. Her dad was a good guy who let me come over and eat three days of the week.

At home, Mama had started only eating breakfast. She said food hurt in summer, and Sakura stopped eating too, so I was getting just miso, rice, and cold somen. I didn't like it. Papa put up with it.

It was super hot outside though. I remembered about the Aburame clan when bugs started to be everywhere but Natsu told me not to go looking for them. She was from a clan too, the Akimichi. I didn't remember anything about them back then, but I liked their name.

The Akimichi houses were cool. There were five houses with little paths all with big walls around them. They owned businesses too and had non-ninja members. Natsu and her dad lived in the smallest one with an auntie.

Her dad had been a ninja, but he lost his leg and became a cook. He was really really good at cooking so I felt bad he lost his leg, but I was glad too. He cooked a lot of meat, unlike Mama.

"A growing child needs lots of proteins," he said that I should tell Mama. I didn't because she and I fought too much anyway.

I worked on reading every day and on the other stuff on my list every few days. We got to take special girl's classes sometimes and I liked dressing up. I didn't like flower language much, because my favorites didn't mean anything cool.

I was trying, but it was hard to remember on purpose. I would want to know about my sister's future, and get a memory about weird TVs or a comic about star people.

As for helping, Papa was taking me to see some old people two times a week. Papa told me to distract them from how sad their lives were. A nurse hit him and said to just treat them like grandparents. I don't have those.

In my other life, I had two grandmas and one hated kids. The one that liked kids had played cards..? So that's what I did.

One grandma had disliked me from the start. Most of the others gave treats, but I decided the mean one needed help more. Plus picking on her made me feel better after I remembered that past me's grandma died before they could go drinking together.

The mean lady's name was Shou, and she didn't have a family. She had some red hairs but a leathery face so I couldn't tell her age. I had asked when we met and she said eight hundred.

Shou didn't like cards and didn't like stories so we glared at each other a lot. She did like yarn though so she would show me how she made things and hit me for my bad stitches. Her old hands were really weak so it was just funny.

We didn't have a summer break, but when fall came our class started doing a lot more. We learned history and math and reading back in spring but now that was only in the morning. After lunch the teachers had us work on our muscles.

Natsu hated it. "Imma puke!" Was her catchphrase. She wasn't good at hitting and throwing stuff, and she was slow. It got harder to be her friend when she got jealous.

I thought I would do badly in class but when we had a tournament, I won! I even beat the boys! Hand to hand was easy. I wasn't the best at throwing but I could throw far.

Konohamaru was one of the worst in class. Moegi, too. I got in trouble when I punched him too hard in a battle the teachers ordered, which was dumb. The lucky thing is that he thought it was dumb too.

Him and this other weak boy started following me around saying mean things after class. I thought that Konohamaru started it so I would fight him for serious again. The second boy had glasses and a leaky nose and stuttered and said sorry when he said something bad.

Leaky nose made it easier to listen to my sister and not fight. In class I only went a little easier on Konohamaru and started calling him 'Hamaru'. I learned how to look innocent when I was being a brat because it was the only way to keep the teachers out of it.

Four kids quit before winter. Natsu started going by Chinatsu and stopped talking to me. She was quieter with everybody and I thought she should quit. She didn't act like she wanted to be a ninja.

It was hard to make a new best friend when the other kids knew me and Hamaru hated each other.  Instead I got a cool senpai to feed me when Mama started serving boring winter food. Papa didn't like him, but Rock brought an extra bento for lunch for me. He also helped me train.

He was a year older than Sakura and acted my age. His name was weird because he said it like Rock Lee but he said the Lee part was his family name, and I liked that. His eyebrows were also cool, but he hid them under his hair.

Rock was angry a lot.

"They don't understand," he said a lot. "I'm working as hard as I can, but if I need ninjutsu to pass the test... I just want to be a ninja."

"Senpai will be. They'd be dumb to say no!" Is what I said most of the time. I wasn't a nice kid, but I pretended. He was a lot better at teaching taijutsu than my teachers.

He was cool, but even though I said what I said I thought I was lying. Rock wanted to graduate early, in three months. I didn't think he could do it, since Sakura told me how the test is scored. Rock would need chunin level taijutsu to get enough points, and be really smart.

Sakura didn't spar with me ever, because she said hitting a kid would be bad. I watched her class once so I think she was just scared of losing her older sister power when she lost.

Me and her still played dress up sometimes, but Ino didn't play any more.

"We had a fight," Sakura said. "I... Well, I can't hide behind her forever."

At school, I found Ino and she said something different. "We are rivals in love now," she said, "and since we both like Sasuke-kun, we can't be friends."

That would have bugged me, because it was a  dumb reason, but it ended up being the trigger for something important.

I had known that this world was in a story in that past life but I hadn't thought about it much. If I had I would have thought sooner about how every story has at least one big problem.

Because of my sister's new rivalry, I remembered Orochimaru and the chunin exams.


	4. 一期一会

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ume starts to prepare for the part of the future she can see.

My peaceful life had to change once I knew how much I had to lose. I knew something nobody else did and that meant I had to choose what to do.

Should I have told the Hokage? Should I have ignored it? Should I have tried to forget and live happily? I still don't know. What I did do, at first, was try to remember more.

I was scared and anxious, and that made me remember that past me had a problem. To deal with it, past me learned to slow down and to do nothing when it was like this. As a five year old, this was hard to do.

I started to spend more time with my sister. I heard about Sasuke plenty but I hadn't met him still, and I thought meeting him would really help. I was dumb and said to Ino I wanted to meet him and she got all sisterly and wouldn't let me. I thought she was afraid that I would become a rival too, which is crazy. I was turning six. He was eight!

The next best idea was getting strong. If I was strong, maybe I could help by myself. I was better than my class still and Rock liked my new energy.

In my free time I was being clingy with my sister and only saw Rock on Saturdays, and saw Shou every two weeks, but that was okay because I got to meet Naruto because of that.

He wasn't in Sakura's classroom ever but he said hi to her once outside, all excited with a loud 'Sakura-chaan'. My sister looked annoyed. "He's some idiot I tried to help," she said and walked off.

"Are you mad at him?"

"Naruto is mean to Sasuke-kun and lazes off in class. He's a real loser."

A new idea came. I knew Naruto and Sasuke would be her team someday so what if they took stuff more seriously too? I knew my sister worked hard but she didn't ask for help where she should and if I got her and Naruto to work on taijutsu...

I remembered that night that Naruto failed the early tests a lot. So when I saw Rock next I said, "I know somebody who has trouble with chakra too and he wants to test early too - can he train with us?"

"Of course, Ume-chan!"

Rock was happy for me more times than he was happy for himself. I was using him at first but we were really friends by now. I made up friends to tell him about so he could happy for me, and he was so proud that I might skip a year. I hoped he would think Naruto was one of those friends.

I guess I didn't talk about this yet, but Mama still kept track of where I went and when. We fought a lot about food still and about Rock. Sakura was her favorite anyway, so I couldn't really sneak off without getting in big trouble.

Meeting Naruto for real was hard because of that. I didn't know better, so I asked Sakura about places he goes and she got worried and told Mama about it. They thought I was going to act out like him or something.

Because of how it worked out, I also have to say that Rock lived by himself. It's why Papa didn't like him, since there was no adult to make sure I stayed put. Papa himself watched over us from across the training field.

He was a ninja too. Haruno Kizashi, a chuunin, except he only took boring missions and I wasn't sure why. He taught me and Sakura stretches when we were little but didn't train us. He only spoke up while I trained with Rock if he thought I was getting hurt.

Mission 'train Naruto' was going to have to be okay with Papa. Or else Naruto would have to look like a different kid, or maybe I could...

I made up lots of plans, with different amounts of lying. The first step was talking to Naruto. I would try to use my birthday first.

It was in late winter, on February 10. Sakura was too busy thinking about Valentine's day and I was ready to use that too.

"Mama, I want to party at Ichiraku ramen."

She was upset but... Mama was always upset, so. She wanted me to want her cooking but I said that I thought ramen was good with the weather. She liked opposing the weather.

We got there and were the only people. Sakura was looking over a lot at a store across the road. I remembered reading something about Sasuke liking bitter stuff not sweet stuff and said I heard it from Ino, so Sakura was thinking a lot about what to get him.

The plan was going good... My family was nice and distracted and I could have ran off any time... but Naruto never showed up. I turned six with no problems except for having to study a lot the next day because I skipped a day.

(That's because of something I'll get back to later so I don't get confused.)

So for plan 2 I had to see Ino. I acted all silly and gave her a drawing I made in three hours  with some old ladies helping. I even called her oneesan, because she liked hearing it.

Then I said that I wanted to know more about Naruto and she thought I had a crush so she spent the whole lunch time talking.

"He sits with Kiba and Shikamaru and Chouji and he escapes class all the time, he's so stupid and he sleeps and eats in class..."

He was who the manga had been all about, but he really was too dumb. If he was going to be my sister's teammate he had to get better.

After Ino got done I asked her to introduce us but she didn't want to and Naruto already left that day anyway. So, I would work on her but try plan 3.

Plan 3 was silly but still safe. I would take a bunch of toilet breaks since he ran from class sometimes so I could run into him.

But, by the fifth time the teacher said he would make me see a doctor if I went again. I was back in two minutes and I picked good times so I didn't see why he was mad.

Plan 4 was kind of scarier. But Naruto would notice for sure! He liked pranks and said nobody could prank better, so I would challenge him.

I wanted to wait to start until the thing I'm not talking about was over with, but I knew I needed to get to Naruto soon. As long as I didn't get caught it'd be okay.

I got into the cleaning supply room to get gloves during lunch on a day when I knew my sister's class was on a field trip. But, I found paint and glue in there too which was perfect.

Before I went in with the stuff, I just looked inside casually. It was empty, so I was quick to get to work.

I painted on the walls and got scared when I heard any sounds, even though it was the middle of the day. I wrote in just hiragana, but I wasn't sure what to write, so I made up random insults and then drew his teacher in a dress. Since it didn't really look like him I wrote his name by it. After that I signed the wall with 'Naruto' in katakana and set to work on his bench with the knife I got from Papa.

If it worked right, his part of the bench would fall through but stick to his butt and from the lower position he would see the note glued under the desk.

The note said to be at the woods by Rock's house at six, but it didn't say Rock obviously. It just had a map and the time and said 'fight me'.

I was nervous in class in the afternoon, which was weird for everybody. Hamaru was useful and said to everyone that it was because he started on chakra training already and I knew he was going to beat me up. Because he said that, I was too angry to be nervous.

I got to Rock's house at five but asked to just hang out today, and we looked for bugs. Papa sat on the porch with a book and didn't look our way. He trusted Rock more by then.

I kept an eye on the forest the whole time, and ended up saying to Rock that I was hoping to see a friend show up. I didn't want Rock to meet Naruto until Naruto said yes to training with us, but I was too obviously nervous to lie.

And then Kiba showed up. He didn't have a dog with him, which I remembered about right then. He looked all around angrily, but saw only us. "Did you two see a yellow idiot?" He asked.

When we said no, he started yelling at trees. Nobody came, and he just kept talking, so I found out I got the wrong seat. At least he thought Naruto did it.

Still, I was super mad. It was stupid for it to be this hard to meet Naruto.

I wanted to stay out of trouble but if I had to I would! It was time for plan 8 because I was too mad to do 5 6 or 7.

Plan 8 was super serious and it was the last plan that I had. It started with doing something horrible: putting diarrhea pills in Sakura's breakfast miso.

They started working on the way to school and wouldn't stop all day. I felt horrible but I pressed on and went to her classroom before I went to mine. In my pocket was another note.

I practiced aiming with paper a bunch the day before just in case. Too much had gone wrong before.

The note was hard to write. My writing wasn't good but I couldn't let anybody look at it, so I did my best. It just told him that if he wanted to pass the exam early he should come train with me and my friend and had Rock's address. I tried to say in it that Rock thought we were already friends and that I did want to be friends, but the way I wrote it felt wrong.

I walked into her classroom and tried not to look at the wall I painted on. It was clean now, I saw anyway.

"Hello, the teacher said, and I tried not to think about him in a dress.

"I'm Haruno Ume... Sakura's sister..?" He just looked at me, because I was being dumb. He didn't know it was me. "She won't make it to class today, she's poo- because she is sick," I barely said the right thing. My sister would kill me if I said she was pooping. "Eto, sorry for interrupting... I just..."

"No, class doesn't start for thirty minutes," (yeah, I knew that already,) "Well, if you can wait a few minutes I'll give you her classwork for today."

If Umino Iruka hadn't left the room then I would have chickened out. As it was I stood in front of the class for two minutes doing nothing.

Naruto was known to be late to stuff but he was here already. Yellow hair, check. Whisker scars, check. He was even sleeping on the right table, one seat from the one I thought.

I was lucky too because Ino wasn't here yet. She thought I had a crush so if she saw me give him a note she would have stopped it.

I thought all this and then got myself together and walked up to his table. Kids looked at me funny but I ignored it and poked Naruto right in the neck. A real ninja should have snapped my finger off quick but he just moved his head and said something mumbly.

"Hey, you can't sleep at school," I said loudly. I didn't really care but I had to give his classmates a reason. "You should sleep at home!"

Naruto lifted his head and his weird goggles fell over his nose. I still saw his eyes squinting. "Heeeh? Who're you?"

"Doesn't matter," I said and before I could lose my courage I pushed the note at him and walked off. I actually went right out of the classroom, but saw Iruka in the hall and got the papers anyway.

There wasn't a time on that note and I worried about that. I talked to Papa and got to train with Rock that day even though it wasn't in the schedule, but it didn't matter. Naruto waited four days to show up. It was a day I was going there anyway, but he got there before me.

Papa wasn't happy to see him. He stopped walking when he saw the yellow hair, and it didn't help that he was fighting Rock. He was losing badly but still.

"Is this kid making trouble?" Papa asked Rock, and I never saw his eyes so cold. I had said to him that some new kids might be coming to train before but I hadn't remembered then that most adults hated Naruto.

Even if I had remembered I would have thought my father was different.

Naruto saw the look. Before it he looked frustrated but excited, and I could see his blue eyes for the first time, and then he just looked angry and hurt.

So I said what I had to. "Papa, don't be mean! He's the friend I said might come."

"What."

Even if my father looked angry at me now, it was worth it because Naruto didn't look hurt any more. "Naruto, I'm glad you could come!" I said and walked that way. My father's arm twitched like he was going to stop me but he didn't.

Papa kept a close eye and made us all feel too awkward to spar but we still worked on kata together and Rock checked our stances. Naruto got a little mad about his being wrong but I only knew that because he was so obvious. It was scary how bad he was at hiding, and I felt bad for him.

  
It wasn't until after we got home that my father started arguing with me. He called Naruto a monster and stuff like that but in the end I said I would run away if he told me who I could be friends with. Rock never did anything wrong, and Naruto didn't either.

It was really upsetting because Papa had been so proud of me a month before.


	5. 内輪喧嘩

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ume skips a grade and watches her precious people change as she turns six, then seven.

So it's time to talk about the other big thing I was working on the spring I turned six! We're going back in time a bit.

In February I decided I had to get stronger too. I knew my teacher didn't like me even though he couldn't prove I was still fighting with Hamaru, but I made myself ask anyway.

"Can I go to the older class after lunch?"

He said no at first like I thought. So I used my secret weapon: crying. He didn't know what to do since I never cried so he said I could try it once.

He said that the older kids knew forms I didn't so I'd lose, but that turned out to be a joke.

The next class's teacher was happy to meet me and let me do a tournament thing with her students. One of her students was my age but got to start everything a year early because she tested out. She was a clan kid named Hanabi and she beat me up in the second to last match. Then she went and lost to this big kid afterward.

The way she fought was cool but I didn't understand. It was whole different from what we were taught and she said it was gentle fist, a family style. What I really didn't understand was why it worked.

I lost, but their teacher was impressed with me."How are you in your normal studies? Do you want to try to test out?"

I did. I was kind of meh in my studies but I had the book with all the stuff I had to know, so I got Sakura to help me study. After I told her and Mama about it all I mean.

Mama was moving dinner when I said, "I'm gonna test in a month to skip a year," and it made her drop it. Gross stew hit the floor and the cupboards and Mama just stared at me.

She said congratulations after a minute though. And we didn't argue about it. When I told Sakura she laughed. Even when I said it wasn't a joke she thought it was, but she still helped me study.

Papa was still my favorite then. He was an adult but he started crying and saying he was proud and he actually fell down hugging me. He even told me he would forgive Rock if I passed. Not that Rock did anything bad to begin with.

Oh, and Rock! I think I already said, but he was proud of me too. He wanted to help me study the books too but I was too busy with the Naruto Deai plans...

There was a step I had to take before I could test, too. I did it the week of my birthday. "Hokage-sama, may I please test to skip a year of the Academy?"

I practiced saying the question all humble, then all childish, then like Hanabi, because I was scared he would look at me and see that I knew how he would die.

That sentence makes me look dumb, but...

Anyway, he didn't look like he cared how I asked. He looked like a nice grandpa in weird clothes. "A young lady such as yourself might want to take her time... Why do you wish to test ahead of your class?"

I wrote a list the day before but in the moment I forgot. I tried to stand still while remembering, looking up at the ceiling and stuff, but I was obvious about being nervous. Why were plans always better on paper?

"I want to get stronger," I said. "I want to keep my sister and my friends safe."

"Your sister is three years your senior," he said, looking at a paper.

"She's really smart but she fights bad and I get worried." I wasn't supposed to say anything like that, so I tried to fix it. "All of my friends are older and I get along better with older kids... and I want to learn stuff faster-"

"Are you having trouble with your classmates?"

I didn't know where he got that from so I just kind of looked at him again.

"Isn't my grandson in your class?"

"Oh, Hama- Konohamaru, yeah. He's, um. In my class, yeah."

I felt like the Hokage's eyes saw too much in everything I said. "I think he's mentioned you," he said, but he looked sad about it. "And how do you get along with Shu? I have his notes on you, as well as the notes Mizuki has taken. They seem to describe different people."

The whole talk was like that. I couldn't lie to him about stuff very well and he made me see that I had been lying to myself too, a bit. I felt like my soul got judged, but he okayed me for testing so I tried to shake it off.

When I wasn't trying to meet Naruto, I was studying. The book started to use letters I didn't know and more katakana with foreign words and I ended up asking for a lot more help than I wanted to. I would be skipping the year that taught a lot about how chakra worked but that would probably be okay because none of the older kids knew much anyway. That should have meant it didn't appear on the test much right..?

I went in to test one week before the new term. If things went okay, I would be in Kokugawa Yuzuki's class. She already looked a million times better a teacher just from what I saw in one day. I might have to see Mizuki still sometimes because I was still a problem child.

Shu was the one who tested me, and I think he made my scores look better so I could get out of his class. I didn't expect to pass because a lot of my answers on the paper test were guesses...

... But I did! I totally passed!!! And when I told Hamaru, he threw a huge fit and it was super funny. He even ran off and got a private teacher.

I didn't get to be happy for long because Mama was the only one who pretended to be happy for me. Sakura was upset about something already, and looked mad when I waved my papers in her face.

I didn't say anything to my father, but he heard when I told Mama. She hugged and kissed me and offered to cook anything or even take me out for food, and he just sat pretending to read.

Because she was the only one giving me what I deserved for a job well done, I asked her to cook a winter dish she liked and did my best to look excited about it. It was dumb but we argued about food so much that her eyes looked wet over it. I even felt bad for being picky.

It was some kind of salad thing, with strawberries and yuzu involved but also a bunch of peppers. It was gross but Mama and I were the only ones who ate it since everyone else was being stupid. She talked between bites about the health benefits and I remembered that in my past life I wrote an essay on what you get when you don't get enough Vitamin C. I decided to listen to Mama more.

My new classes were awesome. I got to sit by Hanabi and she took notes as badly as I did so I asked her to study with me some time. I knew for sure Mama would agree since Hanabi was a clan kid. Hanabi had another friend in class, Hiiro, and I thought he was really funny.

There wasn't anybody I didn't like, and there wasn't anybody I could remember seeing in my past life.

Naruto and Rock failed their exit exams at the end of April, and they both were angry about it. I had to get them to stop whining and start working again after three dumb meetings. Also, my father quit following me to Rock's house. He said I could do whatever I want as long as I didn't make Mama worry. I didn't let him make me feel guilty.

Umm.... What else happened that spring... Right, Sakura. She was upset because Sasuke was upset. Mama told me but didn't tell her that Sasuke's whole family died, so we had to put up with her whining for a month.

Then one day, Mama had enough. "Sakura, you're the smartest in your class, aren't you? Why is it you've never tried to test out?"

She said this when we were sitting down to eat dinner, or I would have run away. I knew that voice.

"W-well..."

"It's because of that boy, isn't it?"

Sakura's eyes were big and her cheeks were red.

"Uwaa, this sure is delicious!" I tried to interrupt. For once Mama ignored a compliment.

"If he's half as great as you keep saying, he should be a chuunin already. Yet he isn't even trying, right? Just shut up and leave him in the dust already. Even Ume-chan skipped a year!"

I was trying to eat all my food and get away, so I wasn't listening enough to feel hurt.

Sakura looked really hurt though, and then she looked angry.

"Gochisousama," I said with my mouth full. But Mama grabbed my arm and I couldn't run for it.

"What do you even want out of life, Sakura? Do you want to be a ninja at all?! Or did I bully you into that, too!"

It sounded like I was missing a story, but I was okay with that.

"Of course I want to be a ninja!" Sakura said, hitting the table.  Her glass spilled.

"Then what's with - all of this?" Mama was pointing out the makeup Sakura was wearing. She wore it a lot these days, some days better than others.

"Haaah??" Sakura stood up. "What are you even saying! You're the one who told me -"

"I said that beauty was useful! And I said it was good to want to be a housewife someday, but with the way you train you'll die on your first mission! You have such a beautiful brain but that won't mean shit without -"

"So what, now that Ume's doing well, I have to do better?!" Or you won't accept me, was left unsaid.

"That doesn't have anything to do with this! You are my child, and I don't want to see you -"

Luckily that was the last part I heard. Mama had let go and I was gone that quick. They didn't talk for two days after that. And Papa and I weren't talking much either so it was really tense at home.

Hanabi understood. She didn't say too much, but her home life was tense too. Her older sister was in Sakura's class and they got along really well, but their dad kept trying to make them compete. I felt like Mama was doing that too, and Sakura was falling for it.

I wanted to ask Sakura to come train with Rock and Naruto and me, but six months passed before I knew it while I put it off waiting for her to be happier.

Mama gave me an old shirt of hers that she wore on duty. It said "fighting spirit" on the back with the writing on a ball of flames: most of the shirt was white. I remembered a month later that Sakura was supposed to have it.

I should have said it when I talked about Papa, but my mother's name was Mebuki and she was a kunoichi once. She quit to be a mom, but I thought she wanted to go back to the field when Sakura and I were old enough. She didn't teach us ninja skills but she must have taught Sakura how to be angry.

(I think I got my strength from Mama, but I looked more like Papa. Sakura got Mama's fair skin and I got Papa's tan. Both us kids had greenish eyes and pinkish hair, though mine's more reddish than hers or our father's. I always thought Sakura got her brain from Papa; I probably got my humor from him.)

Anyway, the whole sixth year of my life was busy. My class started trying to use chakra in autumn, after the worst summer ever. (Every day was muggy and buggy and hot. I barely ate more than Mama.)

  
Hanabi could do the transformation technique by my seventh birthday. I could do it by hers, but I always looked dumb. Hers really wasn't perfect but it was great for a seven year old.

Naruto showed up less and less until he quit training with us. That changed when he failed again in April and got determined again. Hanabi started joining us when he wasn't, and she was really surprised to meet him.

"That's the guy my sister follows around," Hanabi told me in secret. Then she beat him up. She was really protective of her sister.

His transformation was better than ours by a lot and we wanted pointers but Naruto was a bad teacher.

I was halfway to being eight before I remembered more about Orochimaru. It was confusing too. I knew he killed the third Hokage, but now I was remembering him dying and dying again but living and his kid being on Sarada's team..?? Yeah, he got forgiven, and so did his white haired sidekick. That didn't make any sense. I'd remembered fanfiction at some point and thought maybe this was one past me read and just imagined really well.

But... If there was something forgivable about him then I could use that. How would I find out? I decided to ask old people.

in the end I only asked Shou. I found the way to get her to be nice months back, which is alcohol. Another old lady made jokes about her being a shoujou, which I didn't understand at first but its a kind of red-haired red-faced demon from myth that drinks all the time. Shou got mad at that but I told her it meant we should get along since I could be plum wine.

I knew lots more about her now. She was a ninja once and proved it, and she said she was born in another shinobi village that doesn't exist any more, but she was born the year it got founded. Shou came here to get married, but her husband died after five years and they didn't have kids. Shou said at first that she hated kids but later she said that when refugees came from her home village she helped raise them and she missed when that would happen.

Anyway she had been in the Hidden Leaf since the second Hokage was in charge so I knew she would know about Orochimaru. I pretended I overheard about him.

"He's one of the greatest threats to Konoha that are still at large," she said. "He was an amazing asset during times of war, but he began experimenting on children. Sandaime-sama could not abide by it, but held too much affection for his student and could not bring himself to kill Orochimaru as he should have. There are many rumors about his current whereabouts... Loyalties... Experiments..."

I couldn't think of anything that made child experiments forgivable. So maybe he was framed or something... But there was no way I could uncover that.

Oh, I also got a better idea of how much time was left. Sakura was three years older for most of the year and she would be like twelve when she became a ninja. And then it was the first Chuunin Exams after that. She would be eleven in March, and that was getting too close. So I finally did it.

"Oneesan, please come train with me and my friends later!"

Sakura had been in a good mood, and we were playing dress up again. Except after I said that, she got tense.

"We're both gonna be kunoichi someday, so we are probably gonna train together someday right? And I know you are super good with chakra control and we're all bad at it-"

"You don't have to flatter me," she said. "I'll... try it out, okay? I know Naruto is training with you, and he's been acting a lot better in class... As long as he doesn't act weird..."

My sister was always prideful, like Mama. I didn't expect that she would say something so mature. It looked like she was thinking of asking to join us already. I was glad she didn't know that Ino came by sometimes since that would probably be a sticking point.

She walked with me to Rock's house. Sakura didn't wear makeup and tied her hair back that day, and it was weird. I always tied my hair back too, so she probably did it because I did. She looked so serious.

Rock got a weird look on his face when he opened the door to see us. "Good afternoon!" I said after a second. Usually he said something first. "This is Haruno Sakura, my sister! She's going to train with us today, okay?"

"Ah, ano, okay!" He seemed to wake up like he'd been daydreaming. "I'm Rock Lee! Hanabi-chan is already here... Ano, do you want tea? Water? I have some snacks..."

He hadn't offered stuff before and I got suspicious about it. Still though, her first training session with us was good. Naruto never showed up, and Sakura didn't spar with us but she worked with me on the leaf exercise thing that people do to work on chakra control and she taught us better about doing transformation. It felt like the start of something special.


	6. 方向転換

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winter brings change, both good and bad.

It snowed in December, three months before I turned eight. Because I skipped a year, the first time I could try the genin exam was coming up. Hanabi said she wouldn't do it though 'cause it would make her sister look bad, so I didn't know if I wanted to try.

Everybody was saying that Sasuke wasn't doing it yet, 'cause he was gonna complete the curriculum, so of course my sister wasn't going to. But Rock was super serious about it.

Sakura was helping him with the written stuff and he was always working on his taijutsu and weapons. He trained with some weights and was having me do that too - I used to do mostly just kata and aerobic stuff but I did more running and weights now that I was almost eight.

Well, I wasn't running with weights when it snowed. I was hanging out with Shou, so I'm going to focus on that, sorry for getting distracted.

Shou was a pretty awesome person. I asked her at some point about her specialty from when she was a ninja, and it turned out to be sealing. We did some calligraphy classes in school, but I was pretty bad still so Shou made me practice so she could teach me someday.

"Umeshu, it is still art... It should not resemble a floor plan."

"I like the lines neat, though..."

"At this speed, you would need two hours to make the simplest explosion tag matrices. I need twenty seconds. Also, you should have begun that stroke from the right."

Shou was a really naggy teacher even when she was drunk. Even if she was right, I didn't like speeding up. She was letting me copy out parts of a crazy storage seal matrix that could release different levels and kept saying that after I was all done making it she would get to show me what it looks like when a seal fails. Of course I was nervous!

She made the original seal in like twenty minutes, and it only took that long 'cause her hands started shaking.  It would take me two months to copy the whole thing.

The snow was a little distracting that day though because this was the first time in my eight years that I got to see snow. If it ever snowed in Konoha before, I was too little to see it.

Past me lived in a snowy place though and I made up a trip my family would have never actually gone on to tell Shou after I messed up and said something about ice that I couldn't've known. It wasn't really a decision I made, but I'd never told her about my past life and it was too late to bring it up.

Shou's home country had a lot of snow and ice in winter, and she got sad about it even when she had wine. It only snowed the one day, and didn't stick, but she just kept looking out the window. I would've run out to play if she didn't look so lonely.

Hmm... What else is there to catch up on? My family, I guess. Sakura was getting stronger but it turned out I was right. I kicked her butt easily whenever we would spar and she got mad about it somewhat and started only working on taijutsu with my friends when I wasn't there. And it turned out that Naruto was just like Rock when it came to acting weird around her, so I didn't mind that. Being around them all at the same time was annoying.

Mama was still being really nice, and I even started lying to her less. She wasn't too happy that Papa was letting me go to Rock's alone, but Sakura admitted to going too and we just pretended that we always went together. I made some calligraphy of fun sayings as practice with Shou, but Mama was so proud that she hung them up.

Also, Mama would say things at dinner like, "My girls are so well-rounded," when I would say that I worked on sealing, and when Sakura talked about how hard she hit somebody (now that she actually could land hits). It was no longer weird to get along with my mother.

Papa never said he was sorry for how he acted when he met Naruto. But, he started joking with me again at some point and we all were getting along. I was still disappointed with him, but I didn't want to talk about it.

A lot of the bonds in my life felt stronger. I started off using Rock to get stronger and Shou because I felt bad about past me's grandma, but now I really cared about both of them. I was still kind of using Naruto because he was too annoying to hang out with for fun, but he and I talked about it.

It just came out one day, because Naruto said he was plenty strong already since he didn't want to spar. I knew he was just being lazy. "You aren't strong enough. You're gonna fail this year for sure! Idiot!"

"Haah? What's that, you-"

Louder, I said, "But next year you might pass and end up on Sakura's team and if that happens and you're still so lazy you're gonna get her killed! So if you don't wanna work hard then just give up already! Go cook ramen instead!!"

I didn't want to hear whatever he would say next so I ran away. But later on he caught me on the streets.

"Ne, is that why you're helping me?"

"... What are you talking about?"

His squinty eyes opened. The blue was surprising, even though I'd seen them before. "Since I might be Sakura-chan's teammate. That's why you were nice to me."

I thought about it. "Ah, kinda..." I had said before I was done thinking. And surprise, he looked hurt about it. "If you weren't so lazy, maybe we'd be real friends. We both like food," I said. It was supposed to be a peace offering.

"Hmmph. I don't need a friend like you anyway!" Naruto said and started to walk off. He stopped to say, "but I'm gonna work harder and I'm gonna get stronger. I'm gonna be Hokage someday, you know? I'll get strong enough to protect everybody!"

He's a dork. At least he talked about protecting that time and not just the same old thing about being accepted.

Hanabi and I became really good friends that year too. Kind of scarily good... I saw her everyday and we had some other friends but she was the one that mattered most. Even back then, a room always felt different if she was in it, and I would get jealous if she got hugged by somebody else or joked that they were her best friend. Hanabi came from a clan that didn't do hugging and stuff, so I knew it was awkward for her. Nobody else seemed to care though and since she was trying to be nice like her sister, Hanabi let people do whatever. This one guy, Daisuke, even went around holding her hand when she looked unhappy about it. We were kind of friends before that because we watched the same shows but after that I broke his arm. I had to start talking to Mizuki again thanks to that.

Hanabi had special eyes. They were what made gentle fist work, but I thought they were as creepy as they were cool. It's like that with the Aburame too for me, and we had two Aburame kids in this class: Hinoto and Mei.

I didn't avoid them, but at the same time I kind of did. Hinoto made awkward jokes and stood too close to people, so he was extra creepy; Mei was quiet but really determined and just too cool to mess with.

... Right though, Hanabi's eyes. She told me something about them that winter that she shouldn't've.

"The byakugan allows my clan to see tenketsu and through objects," she started out saying. I knew that already, though, so I didn't get why we were hiding out in the trees above the Hokage Monument. "It's... A valuable treasure. The village would not be what it is now, without the Hyuuga. Because of that, we get to make some of our own clan rules, and I know the tradition exists to protect the byakugan... To protect the village... But... I just..."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I told her. She was being all vague, but the way she said it meant she wanted advice.

Hanabi looked upset a lot around then. Sitting in that tree, she had picked a branch big enough that she could hug her knees while she talked. It made her look like a kid, when I was used to her being more grown up.

"There's a family tradition that I... It's scary," she said, and her eyes had gone all veiny again. She was being paranoid. "Usually it's the younger siblings... But, if I can graduate this year..."

"So you want to try to graduate?" Translating mumbles was not something I was great at. And I didn't need to be, because she was normally a great speaker - it was just then that I had to make guesses.

Completely wrong guesses. "No!" Hanabi yelled, and she looked scared. "If I did that, then Oneesama..."

"So... You don't want to try."

"Well... If I manage then, I'll become the heir - and someday, I'll be able to change everything."

I was still really confused, but I tried my best. "You really want to be able to change things."

"Well, yeah! My cousin... He didn't deserve that. None of them do. This can't be the only way, or we would all be sealed..."

... Sealed? That felt like something I should remember about. "So... If you don't graduate, things won't change how you want?"

Her eyes went in that mode again. It was kind of crazy how much older the byakugan made her look. "Well... Oneesama is a good person, but... She isn't good at standing up to our father."

"Well, um, that sucks... Does it have to be you or her? It can't be both?" I still didn't really get what I was advising about, but I hoped I was doing okay.

"I wouldn't even know how to ask for that, and I'd really rather it was neither of us, anyway. If anyone was to ask, it shouldn't be me, either..."

"Have you talked to your sister about it?"

Hanabi shook her head. "If Oneesama knew I could be saved from it, she wouldn't even stop to think. She's too kind..."

"Yeah, but... This sounds like it involves her too much to decide about it without knowing how she feels. You should talk to her," I said. I had memories about family troubles that all started with a secret or two, and I really thought that it had to be better to talk honestly.

I found out how wrong that could be when she didn't show up to class for three days after that. When Hanabi came again, she cornered me right away. "She told him, and he sealed her," she said, and started crying.

The Hyuuga's caged bird seal, that's what she was going on about. And now it was on Hinata when it should've ended up on neither of them.


End file.
